Friday, March 29, 2024

Statement from Dr. Fred M’membe

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Post Newspaper Editor in Chief Fred M'membe
Post Newspaper Editor in Chief Fred M’membe

I learnt of the arrest of my wife Mutinta and harassment of my lawyer Nchima Nchito with deep sadness. This was inhuman, unacceptable and done in bad faith. The invasion of my home in my absence was and is a cowardly and desperate act. President Edgar Lungu and his agents ought to have known I was out of the country visiting the USA and Jamaica. The warrant to arrest me was therefore a farce. It was meant to enter, search, intimidate, harass and humiliate my family. My wife, just like any humble and respecting citizen should do, complained against this injustice. She was insulted and assaulted for defending her home. Her arrest and detention as well as the continued harassment of my lawyer is an affront against any sense of fairness and justice. It is a total abuse of the judicial process.

I will be coming back home in a few days time. Edgar Lungu and his agents should be patient enough to wait and give me the chance to answer any charges against me. The destruction and removal of my personal property in my absence is shameful. There is no piece of asset or machinery at my home that belongs to Post Newspapers Limited. My integrity in this regard is unquestionable and borne out of highly principled stand in life. Money and wealth have never been the driving forces behind my life and actions. The assets of The Post they want to steal in broad daylight were built over a period of 25 years of hard and selfless work. It is against all that I stand for to keep such assets at my home for personal use.

The liquidation of The Post is supposed to be a civil issue. The use of the police, intelligence officers and the entire state machinery, including State House, is unwarranted. It is impunity of the highest order.

Meanwhile, my children, wife and relatives residing at my home have to be left alone. The policemen and state agents should vacate my home. It is me President Edgar Lungu is after. He should have the patience to wait for a few more days.

94 COMMENTS

    • So he is a Doctor now?

      Mmembe you are a criminal, and you dont want to be treated like one.

      You have cases and you dont want to be answerable just like anybody else- Why?

      No sympathy from Glasgow. Throw the book at this SOB

      Thanks

      BB2014,16

    • One day all this will be history. I really don’t understand why the police get so excited at civil matters like this. I wish they could have mounted a similar high powered operation to find those criminals who were cutting young men’ private parts. Very sad.

    • I don’t care about membe he is a maker of his own destiny.
      But things must be done the right way and within the law.
      If you tear a court order that says a lot about you.
      If my wife was being harassed l will stop everything am doing and rush to her aid l wouldn’t be writing responses in the papers!

    • How this country needs men & women who can stand up to tyranny.
      The people using Chagwa are not serving his, nor the country’s interests. They are hyenas out to settle scores. Unfortunately, it will be Chagwa carrying their CROSS when time to reckon comes.

    • @Mmembe

      Even though I do not condone what Lungu is doing to you but truth stands you are one of the staunch architect of PF and its corrupt machinery.

      Now its pay back time and feeling the wrath of a monster you nurtured to power.

      Lungu is afraid of his own shadows such that he he wants all his opponents dead.

    • Who ever thinks Mmembe ‘s problems are Tax related should have his/her head examined at Chainama.

      Mmembe was PF a and at no time did any PF f00l shout aloud about his tax affairs until he started condemning PF.

      Kavindele was also under investigations until he joined PF. Therefore it follows that if any criminal wants live in peace with PF he/she should join PF and make the loudest noise in support of Lungu.

      My advice to all still in PF is , make sure you make laws and regulations and give instructions to police officers as though you are in opposition because doing otherwise will make you get caught up in the very mess you created like Mmembe, and Kambwili to mention but a few.

    • “NEVER KICK A MAN WHEN HE IS DOWN” IS WHAT DECENT PEOPLE SAY.
      BUT THE HYPOCRITE MMEMBE USED TO ENJOY DOING THIS AND EVEN STICKING IN THE KNIFE WHEN A LOT OF PEOPLE HE HELPED DESTROY WERE CRYING FOR HELP.
      ONLY BECAUSE MMEMBE IS NOT DECENT BUT INFACT A SCOUNDREL.
      BUT AS DECENT PEOPLE, WE MAY PITY HIM.
      LET ONLY GOD JUDGE HIM

    • Am always amazed at some people’s thinking.

      Tax evasion is civil? When did theft become civil?

      Do you know what happened to Messi and his father?

      Tax evasion a civil case, is it the national law some people are using or it is family law?

    • @Nostradamus
      Bo mmembe is a Jah man, he went to Jamaica for ichamba research, I can’t wait to read about his research we he comes

  1. This is truly a sad situation. They probably knew he was out of the country and decided it was the best time to execute the warrant. The treatment of his wife and family is unbelievable in a democratic state. ECL should remember that he, too, will leave power one day, he better hope his immunity is not lifted. He needs to ask RB.

    • Why do people like M’Membe keep on referring to ECL as if his Tax issues have started during Lungu’s tenure at State House.The facts are that M’Membe got used to having his Tax liabilities written off.The K16million Tax debt written off in 2012 with Sata’s approval inspired him to continue being Tax delinquent.Well things are never permanently the same.It is M’Membe’s inability to put his affairs as regards loans and other commercial obligations in order that has resulted in him being followed by Police upon the Court’s order.A court cannot differ the issuance of a bench Warrant just because an individual is on a holiday in Jamaica.By the way why did M’Membe leave his beautiful wife at home instead of going with her on the trip? Next time he should advise his wife never to be…

    • @ Julius stupidity is with ZRA for as an institution that ensures revenues are collected they let themselves dance to political lyre! How could ZRA succumb to instruction that they don’t collect taxes by Sata? ZRA must have had the interest of understanding how The Post would offset what was owing! Pray Lungu becomes wamuyayaya for any change in leadership will have its own way of approaching this saga. I would fire all top management at ZRA for ineptitude. It is obvious Mmembe and ECL have a putrid relationship rooted in disdain on one part and vengeance on the other. Ethical business dealings should have presided over ZRA handling of The Post than a joinder with ECL. In both ZRA and ECL’s reasoning killing the goose that laid golden eggs will result in more revenues!

  2. Tapalati. Mr. Integrity you’re yet to be fully undressed for the whole world to see how dirty you’re. You always claimed to be an angel and painted others so dark forgetting that whatever goes round always comes round. It is now your time dance mbombola matako!

  3. this is total arrogance,surely if he had cleared the konkongole and ZP continued following him, we could have symathisized him.But awee mwandi why hide his mischief in the name of harrassment

  4. The abuse of state machinery just to fix perceived enemies is appalling to say the least. There should be civility even in bootlicking. The liquidation of the Post is a civil case and I have always wondered why the police command has let itself be used in this manner. It is such abuse of power that lands people at the ICC no wonder we are now seeing efforts to have Zambia withdraw. Something really does go bad in the minds of little people when they have power!!!

    • Mwebantu, the police is not interested in Mmembe they are just executing a court order. They will be arrested if they ignore the court order. Blame the person who gave the court order. What a nation do we want to be, where court orders can be ignored or torn into pieces? Of course there could be personal/political issues but we cannot ignore the law on the speculations. Fred Mmembe himself taught us, in his many editorials, that law (even bad law) must be followed!

  5. OOOOOOOOOOOOOH now he has even acquired a DOCTORATE IN REFUSING TO PAY TAXES AND WORKER’S SALARIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  6. The whole government is scared of this man. They knew he was not there so they went to his house thinking they’ll have it easy. This guy is courageous, writing a letter like this to a Dictator.

  7. Such people are usually awarded with Doctorates for causing so much confusion and hegemony in a country. You and I who work so hard to put food on our tables receive less or no notice at all. The world rejoices in such nonsense and people become heroes just like that. Writing with a pen and owning a newspaper is a great achievement. God help us.

  8. Naimwe ba Mumembe just pay tax as we all do. What is your problem. Hand over the property of the POST and all will be well with you. I wonder why you are refusing to hand over as if you are not a layer who knows the corporate law. Please pay back as we all do mr Mumembe. No sympathy from me Truth Hates.

  9. Let us all be sincere is this a civil or criminal case. Is it about taxes or M’membe I always wonder, how come no one is talking about Post employees. Do they matter awe mwe?

    • a bench warrant is a criminal case! No one needs Mmembe to pay taxes anymore. Post is gone. Now what they need are assets that belonged to the post. See – this is how the case is unfolding.

  10. It is rather cowardly to flee from your misdeeds and put your family in trouble. Even the mighty HH could do nothing to bail out the wife. Follow the rule of law, man up and come back, not in a few more days, but as soon as yesterday and face the problems with your family.

  11. Edgar and his fellow criminals must be very careful because their end is near. The moment you hear an organisation in a foreign country talk about injustices in another country, just know that the fire is lit. This is how dictators fall from grace because they fail to see the red lights. Already I have heard some quarters dismissing the union in South Africa that has decided to stand for the rights of Zambians and press freedom as a small union whose rantings are misplaced. Edgar you will be disgraced and it is a matter of time. Mmembe is a Zambian like anybody else. If he has any cases to answer, the due process of the law must take iys course. Harrasment is an infingement of citizens’ rights and there are repurcassions. That same brutal police Edgar is using will turn against him in a…

  12. Hiding items which are liable for bailiffs confiscation is a criminal offense. Mmembe should have simply washed his hands of anything to do with the Post.

  13. He knows what is going back home and he can not rush back? What kind of business is he doing in Jamaica. This man has issues and is a coward. If ECL was scared of him, he wouldn’t have closed the post and put his company under liquidation. Stop being brave from afar and come and answer questions about your crimes.

  14. Comment: I am surprised even learned people are calling the hiding of post properties a civil matter. This became criminal after hiding some properties some which were found in South Africa and Chilanga District. No wonder the the police got involved to recover the stollen motor vehicles and also to find out who had hidden those properties to the place where they found them. It is an episode which someone will wish he did not do.

    • When Zambia airways was liquidated 4 planes where in South Africa at the time. Do you call that hiding? Post courier is an international company doing business in the region.

  15. If i were the President i would have fired all these leaders in the security wings because they knew that this guy was not home but decided to waist resources through allowances just to go and harass the family of the culprit which is indeed cowardise.

  16. Which wife? He means the concubine? …….or worse? Where is Chilyata to give us a correct description? I am not capable of the words that Chilyata uses…..
    Hey donkey Mmembe, you think that you are so important that before a warrant of arrest is issued the magistrate must call the immigration dept and other agencies to confirm whether you exited the country or not? If you and your concubine were civilised people, Mutinta would simply have told the police that you had travelled out of the country and when she expected you back. We all do and we dont tear the warrant if arrest to.pieces…unless you want to achieve police cells!

    • Scotland Yard,CIA, FBI, MI5 in fact all trained security services would cross check with airports and borders before executing an order like this one. Sorry I am comparing chalk and cheese here. PF militia masquerading as police

  17. Lungu knew M’Membe was out of the country and he thought it was an opportune time to send in the police to raid his house, turn it upside down and harass his family. This is gutless stupidity and cowardise, he will pay for it dearly one day, soon.

  18. The Ugandan IT gentleman was allowed to enter a restricted room /server for the ECZ. Same police harassing Mmembe were instructed to escort him to the airport and ushered safely into the hands of the authority in the country of origin. All swept under the carpet, silenced as if the crime was petty when in fact the gentleman was tempering with the constitutional rights of the people by attempting to adjust the numbers. Where is the fairness of justice in Africa. Multinational corporations are raping our resources and declare losses deliberately to avoid taxes and no one follows them, but your own people are persecuted. Very strategy. If Sata facilitated the write off of the previous tax liabilities, the current leadership wont use the same prerogative because they want to finish him off.

  19. This government is not helping Zambia because it is only suppressing the media. This president should be careful because days are numbered. We had powerful and influential politicians in this country, where are they today? But who is this frog in the name of Edgar to suppress the media? Machende yako!

  20. I just hope ECL knows how to fight a war. If he is fighting a battle, I pity him. Mmembe will outlive the 5 yr term. Some people it’s better you don’t start a fight against them. FTJ remains being feasted even in his graveyard to date. TIYE NAVYO!

  21. There was no need to arrest his wife. I hope and trust she has been released. Secondly let’s not divert from the real issues at hand Fred has some unresolved issues that go way back to DBZ and Zambian Airways so let’s call a spade a spade and let the Law take it course without trying to obstruct it which sadly is what Fred is doing by putting his wife in the frontline. This is a cowardly act by Fred and he shouldve taken his wife with him on the trip so as to avoid putting her in this position. Selfishness at work here!

    • The wife has a newspaper (The MAST) to run. How can she go on holiday when she has just started work please mwebantu bakwa Lesa ?

  22. The same trucks that made him pompous and made him fix Clive Chirwa have come back to haunt you Fred!! You think you are special?? Just come back home instead of texting useless messages iwe

    And what makes you think you are that special that ECL must know where you 24/7? You are just a common criminal together with those Nchito brothers

  23. Toothless government, no courage to deal with foreigners who are harrassing citizens. Chinese even trick the president getting huge chunks of prime land. I even laugh at fellow Zambians making fun of this. We are not being told what the police went to do there and what is the search warrant for. I can also tear a warrant if it does not fully explain its purpose.the damm warrant must have been hurriedly obtained and we the need to know the whole truth and not all these speculation.Lungu needs to save our police and money from all these vengeful acts no wonder the country is not doing well because all lungu is thinking is wasting money and time fighting useless fights. People are asking for jobs and you shutting down businesses. This will have an adverse effect on the economy and country…

  24. Bravo Mr. MMEMBE, you r persecuted badly through these moments. Your suffering is only for a season. God will surely reward you at the right time. Your enemies will fall hard. It is not good to harass innocent people.

  25. Is he forgetting how he used to enjoy reporting about the where abouts of Xavier Chungu? Karma at play! Its your time to face the music which you subjected others to! House searching of Mmembes enemies where the order of the day during Mwanawasas time!

  26. THIS IS NOT NEW NAIMWE BA M’MEMBE. A VERY COMMON STRATEGY THATS WHAT ALL TERRORISTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST DO. THEY PUT WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN FRONT AS HUMAN SHIELD.

  27. M’membe was an unrepentant supporter of Michael Sata, the founder of the PF. And yet he like many Zambians were privately questioning Sara’s mental health. Dr Roger Chongwe even went so far as to propose legislation that would require a State House psychiatrist. Sara’s “grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticism, & an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy & reality” was clear evidence of his mental instability. While stopping short of giving Sata a formal psychiatric diagnosis, many experts would have loved him to submit to a full medical & neuropsychiatric evaluation by impartial investigators. Dr Haworth went further Before Sata died. He once note Sata could be sick with malignant narcissism, which is characterized by grandiosity, sadism and…

  28. … and antisocial behavior. True, M’membe helped install a mad man as president of Zambia and let the vehicle he used to do so lynch him.

    • If mmembe’s post newspaper pf’s mouthpiece in 2011 was not paying tax, then pf was harboring a criminal, they are part and parcel of the crime.

      Who has seen those two camel toe pfacists nubian princess and Olivia the real popi.

  29. there is more to this story. Rumours within the security wings are that mmembe had an affair with esther lungu a few years ago and this angered the rat lungu.

  30. This thief must pay the taxes and DBZ loan. Tell your stupid wife not to tear search warrants next time. Its insulting to the courts who sign them. The moment you land from your gay trips pay back the loan and the taxes you owe. We know the post has been tax evading for 25 years and now you have been caught pants down.

  31. if you want to survive in life, work like chinyau or mankishi, work without recognition or reward while making the whole community excited. Have you ever seen a chinyau taking fanta or coke from anyone. even when it dances the best dance, you cant even know it was your workplace boss who was dancing. They keep doing good without any recognition at all. If you want recognition, your works shall always follow you. Remember the horse race. When the horse wins a race, the funds are deposited in the account of the owner and not the horse. Actually the horse is usually sent to the nearest river and pasture to graze and drink un treated water while the rider goes on holiday taking mineral water and sleeping in nice hotels. two things here and those that have ears, learn them hear.

  32. Membe is just a useless man we all pay tax what’s so special about him just a coward and selfish useless. Just continue smoking ve chamba ku Jamaica

  33. Just watch the idoit, did he hide the money stolen from the Post, ZRA, DBZ, NAC, Zambian Airways in Jamaica? Is he trying to shift the look in case the liquidator “looks” there? Or was he trying to bring some back seeing that he is broke and cannot pay lawyers or buy mealie meal? Either way, he has exposed himself and now Mosho can search there too. Chasowa ko bisa ndalama?

    • When this id iot stole victory for you in 2011,you never knew he was a tax evader? You chaps were Harboring a criminal right? What does that make you boy?

  34. Fred M’membe has been a risk taker for some time now. What he did not know is that he would one day find himself entangled in his own cast net. Since the days of the late FTJ (HSRIP), M,membe has been using any circumstances for his own selfish ends. During FTJ’s era M’membe owned the people of Zambia and indeed made reference to that effect “our people” check the archives of the former post newspaper. But today where are the people that he owned? He used among other things human weaknesses and imperfect systems, not for anyone else but for himself. He held successive Governments of Zambia ransom for his own good, while destroying several people’s characters. The great M’membe thought that he would fool all the people all the time. He even thought that the Government institutions where so…

  35. He even thought that the Government institutions where so weak that he could overrun them and do as he pleased, again for his own good. He has always punched above his weight to make people think that he is so important when he is just a common citizen like anyone of us. There is absolutely no need to M’membe to think that Lungu is after him, for what? Lungu just happens to be a custodian of our resources.

  36. I thought the issue here was Invest Trust and his house pledged as collateral? Was it about the closed Post? Only trouble makers would tear a court document. If you look for trouble, you surely find it. Leave Lungu out of this. He was not there when you were borrowing Us$ 8 million and pledge your house as collateral.

  37. For those who remember the Zero Option in the early 1990s, the then UNIP President, Inyambo Yeta, was served with a search warrant when the police wanted to search the UNIP offices. Inyambo Yeta tore up the search warrant. Mmembe wrote one of his usual lengthy editorials arguing that Yeta had committed a very serious offence and deserved to be locked up. What has changed since then for him justify Mutinta’s tearing of the search warrant? Those blindly supporting Mutinta and Mmembe’s behaviour should, at the very least, have a sense of history.

  38. @51 Facts, I share your good sense of history and that is why I have no respect for Mmembe. What he has been doing and writing are a complete contradiction of what he has written before. He writes to please donkeys that cannot remember anything or are so desperate to get into power that he has duped them into thinking that he still has clout to deliver that power. Well not any more, because of the crook that he has become. Mmembe is basically a criminal that took a long time to detect because of the good early history of the Post newspapers (in liquidation). Because of his abuse of trust, when he gets into trouble with the law my first and safe reaction is to assume that he has indeed broken the law, until I get the facts right. In other words for the crook that he is, I assume him guilty…

  39. This accounts clerk night school lawyer wanabe scribe and shibukeni dr kwena chipuba your wife is picked up you don’t know how they have treated her in the cells and you ‘continue’ your tour? Anyway when you grab a woman from a man on his death bird rationality is not at the fore of your actions. ECL is not after you he is very busy and you are envious of that. He didn’t send you to evade tax neither did he send you to steal from dbz and the public so come back home stop trying to hide post assets as you are not as clever as you think. Deal with the liquidator….aba bambi bali muchibe bola nayi kosa””

  40. There is nothing wrong in supporting anyone but it becomes wrong when you continue supporting what is wrong. Africa has more dictators because their supporters continue cheering even when hey do something wrong

  41. It remains prudent to argue and prove before a court of law that family members were subjected to unlawful treatment. Unlawful treatment could be excessive force or disproportionate zeal. When the case goes through, then compensation will be paid, accordingly. Quite clearly, the moral approach was to wait patiently for the head of the family to return before unleashing police brutality. The ethical domain allows immediate action. This is the approach that was utilized. The burden of proof demonstrating that police were in right place at the right time can be determined by the court itself. Arresting icons can be sensational but arresting nonentities is quite tragic.

  42. Dr. Mmembe let your lawyers speak on your behalf. In your absence lawyers are defending you and your family. U shld ve stayed quiet wherever you are. Ecl shld not be a subject in this case. Ecl will not respond to u. The last kick of a dying horse at play.

  43. Sorry Mutinta. Tough times need strength. Hope matters are resolved quickly so you can soar to higher heights. Be blessed.

  44. Zambia has slipped into dictatorship. Lungu is to blame as he is trying to consolidate power still for 2021 elections. Sad indeed. Why is all the civil society quiet and opposition?
    Shame on PF govt. Dictators come and go and soon they will account for destroying Zambia democracy.

  45. DON’T BE SURPRISED WHEN GUNS START FIRING. PLEASE DON’T PROVOKE THE SITUATION TO THE LIMIT OF LIFE AND DEATH, IT TAKES ONLY ONE “MAD” PERSON AND THEN THE UNTHINKABLE WILL START HAPPENING. LET THE PRESIDENT CONTROL THE SITUATION, WE NEED LEADERSHIP.

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